Locations

In the summer of 1989, my dad and I enjoyed a week of railfanning all over the Magnolia State. Our primary destinations included Columbus and the Delta Route west to the Mississippi River. But in order to get there we the Gulf & Mississippi's Louisville District. The regional had just been purchased by the MidSouth a year earlier. Although the name had changed to SouthRail, and some handsome MidSouth units now dotted the line through the towns we traced, little else seemed to have changed on the Gulf & Mississippi. Dad always had a place in his railfan heart for the Gulf, Mobile & Northern, so the opportunity to explore at a leisurely pace a section of the old GM&N and GM&O mainline was a real treat. The "Rebel Route" — as it was dubbed back in the day — named for the famed streamlined motorcar sets that plied the north-south mainline as "Rebels."

We picked up the old GM&N main (later Gulf, Mobile & Ohio) mainline at Bay Springs, Mississippi. Riding into town in the morning, we were lucky enough to catch the SouthRail local coming into the depot area with a rare high-nose Gulf & Mississippi unit on the point. This unit was a delight, because the cash-strapped G&M only got around to painting a handful of units in their GM&O-inspired red-and-white look.

In Bay Springs, the crew placed their power in a siding and then gravity-rolled their empties downhill past the turnout. The power was then placed back on the train, and the consist was backed southbound to service a Georgia Pacific mill at the end of the line. (By this point, the line south to Laurel was out of service.) Over the course of that day, we moved northward through Newton (where the GM&O crossed the Illinois Central), Union (where the GM&N mainlines met), Philadelphia, Louisville (big names for little towns), and finally Ackerman. In each town, we enjoyed exploring the remaining GM&N-era wooden stations (the Bay Springs depot, half of its former self!). And we saw a number of trains along the way: evidence that the MidSouth (as SouthRail) was keeping the rough under-weight trackage and the well-worn Paducah rebuilds of the short-lived G&M moving along and making some money. The following day: Artesia, West Point, and more SouthRail action on the former Mobile & Ohio mainline.

In the fall of 1989, the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Historical Society published a summary our trip in the fall edition of their News.